Sunday 29 April 2012

CRIME FICTION REVIEW: The Good Wife's Castle - Roland Vernon

Release Date: 26/04/12

SYNOPSIS:

The unexpected suicide of an apparently happy family man; a woman held captive for three years in a forgotten underground bunker; a middle aged clergyman at a crisis point in his life, drawn into an uncomfortable relationship with a teenaged girl. Against the backcloth of these interwoven tales comes the story of two very different men who meet accidentally and are dramatically thrown together.

Piet Steyn and Granville St Clair happen both to be out walking at dawn on a country lane when they unintentionally become joint witnesses of a domestic tragedy. There is one aspect of what they see that morning which they feel compelled to keep secret - a decision that will later have appalling repercussions for them both. As the layers of their private lives begin to peel away, they find themselves unwillingly bound together in a conspiracy with deadly consequences.

The Good Wife's Castle is a tense thriller that explores a clash of human evil and goodness, of despair, murderous obsession and twisted spirituality, all of which co-exist beneath the veneer of seemingly respectable people in a quiet rural community.


REVIEW:

OK, do you love a book that takes a situation and explores what if? A book that feels like its set in a normal area with a solid community? Where everyone knows each other’s business? Well Roland Vernon does that and blends into that infamous author question of “What If?” merges a suicide into the mix and a mistress, sits back and waits to see what occurs.

What unfurls within is a story of deceit, lies and of course the story of the characters’ lives falling down around their ears. It’s cleverly written and when backgrounds are added, makes this a hard to put down title as it builds to its crescendo. Add to this a solid understanding of pace, a realistically built cast and of course an author who knows how to guide the reader throughout their writing. Great stuff.



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